Friday, July 07, 2006

Absurdist Poetry, Web Zen Style

This is the best poem I've ever read about bees:

The Bee Larva is a bee growth
growth to arrive
some at that time period (the period of Larva),
be placed in the period of Larva,
the bee nourishment in material is very abundant.
Merchandise Bee Larva is male bee
each nourishment of larva vegetable
that male Bee Larva,
very plentifulness in nourishment,
from its at 10 day hour contain the deal
tallest.
Under the normal feeding condition,
each bee inside male Bee Larva is not much,
the agriculture of bee also does not
let excessive male bee larva,
such as excessive male bee larva, etc.
goes to heaven as a fairy
the building changes into the adulthood drone empress,
in addition to having minority and virgin king hands over the tail,
the superfluous drone light eat to do not fuck live,
consumed the bee the animal feed in the cluster unnecessarily.

If you're wondering who just used a verbal machete to flay and eviscerate your whole concept of bees, check out the copy in its original form. I didn't change anything but the linebreaks.

Okay, the "poem" is obviously a poorly translated bit of copy from a Chinese company that is trying to sell bee larvae, presumably for some alternative medicine-y reason (wanna love your wife bigger?). The text was probably sensible in the original language, but rendered surreal by running it through a computer translator.

Still, as I found it, it is poetry. My brain seeks meaning.

Behind the logomania, I detect some things I know about the life of honey bees.
Under the normal feeding condition,
each bee inside male Bee Larva is not much,
the agriculture of bee also does not
let excessive male bee larva,

I know that! I think... Male bees, called drones, are a distinct minority in the hive. They are vastly outnumbered by their sisters, the worker bees. And drones will get the boot if food supplies run short.

But the text has some turns of phrase which only make partial sense.
in addition to having minority and virgin king hands over the tail,
the superfluous drone light eat to do not fuck live,

Um, I know that when drones mate with a queen it is a life-and-death affair. As the drone gives up the sperm, his reproductive organs are ripped out (king hands over tail?) and he dies soon after.

But I love the dreamy quality behind it all, the pieces that only seem intelligible on the edges of reason and that blur into a haze when I really stop to think about it.
goes to heaven as a fairy
the building changes into the adulthood drone empress,

Something about the metamorphosis from larvae to adult? The necessity of moving out of one hive so that a new queen can create a new hive?

And the pathos of the last line!
consumed the bee the animal feed in the cluster unnecessarily.
which I choose to read like a sort-of haiku:
consumed,
the bee,
the animal,
feed in the cluster unnecessarily.

The passions that drive biological cycles are so strong, but in the end, so pointless.

Or am I reading too much into it?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That is awesome.. I love the fuck.. its so powerful.
check minihippo.blogspot.com